Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, has said that the country’s army is struggling to checkmate Boko Haram fighters because of some soldiers’ ‘insufficient willingness to perform assigned tasks.’
Concise News reports that the army chief made this known on Tuesday at the opening of a five-day leadership workshop for mid-level officers and soldiers in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Buratai made this revelation one week after the Islamic State (IS) claimed that its fighters tied to Boko Haram killed at least 20 Nigerian soldiers in some attacks in Borno state, northeast Nigeria.
One of the attacks was the one carried out on Wednesday, June 12, at Kareto village, Mobbar area of the state.
Buratai said, “It is unfortunate, but the truth is that almost every setback the Nigerian Army has had in our operations in recent times can be traced to insufficient willingness to perform assigned tasks or simply insufficient commitment to a common national and military course by those at the frontlines.
“Many of those on whom the responsibility for physical actions against the adversary squarely falls are yet to fully take ownership of our common national or service cause. And this is the reason why I have always ensured that the promotion of army personnel is essentially based on professional considerations only.
“But we all know that professional capacity is not a sufficient condition to succeed in a task; willingness to perform the task is equally necessary. We all know that leadership is core to military professionalism; hence all military professional courses include aspects of military leadership skills acquisition.”